Notes: Believe it or not, this fic was inspired by the movie Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. Or rather, it simply “came out of nowhere” while I was watching the movie. Then, I decided to pepper this story with a whole bunch of other references that may be jarring to some readers(see if you can spot them). This won’t be an epic fic since I haven’t the faintest idea of what would be happening after Dirge of Cerberus. It’ll be little more than just three people confronting each other about what happened, what is going on, and where to go from there.

--

Weiss found himself sitting against a rocky wall, too busy trying to figure out just where, how, and when he ended up where he was. His last memory included falling from Omega Weapon to depths he never had the chance to fathom. He remembered feeling high speed air blow through his hair and body, but he couldn’t get enough of his bearings to figure out just what the hell was going on. He just felt like sleeping, but then he remembered a mysterious voice.

“It is not yet time for slumber, there is work to be done, my brother.”

Weiss wanted to be absorbed into the rocks, but contented himself with simply breathing in the cool night air. He felt barely alive, and really wanted to sleep. Work was a word that never scared Weiss, but he didn’t feel like doing much of anything in the present time. He didn’t give a damn about the moon slightly obscured by the clouds and he wasn’t even sure if he even cared about the person who carried him from the Midgar caverns. He remembered that person, but felt nothing. Sure, they were now ‘brothers’, but that word only meant something to him if his brother’s name was Nero. This mysterious person wasn’t Nero.

Weiss closed his eyes. “Nero...” He could sense his younger brother inside of him, and he could even see him in the shadows, lying down, silently breathing. Down, but nowhere near out. Weiss managed a little smile, but still felt his chest tighten.

“Nero...”

“So, you’re finally awake.”

Weiss looked toward the source of the voice, known as “G”. He knew him as Genesis. /Now you show up after all this time/. He remained silent, but he stood up and managed to take a few steps toward the Midgar Cliff that overlooked the ruined city. Things looked a little too bright down there, but Weiss thought nothing of it. He stood behind Genesis and eyed the red coat.

“Infinite in mystery is the Gift of the Goddess--”

Weiss tensed. “Don’t spout that shit at me, or I’ll tear your tongue out and shove it up your ass!”

Genesis slowly turned around, a sneer marring his pretty face. “Aren’t you the grateful one this fine night.”

Weiss narrowed his eyes. “Look, I just got my ass beat by a guy who probably hasn’t changed his underwear in thirty-three years, I spent who knows how many hours plastered on a rock thinking that I was dead yet again, my brother lives inside me, but I’ll be lucky if he wakes up next week.” He took a few quick steps toward Genesis, really wanting to knock his head off, but did his damndest to restrain himself. “My dream machine is back swimming in the Lifestream, I just got through being mind fucked by the most disgusting human being to ever crawl on the face of this planet, and”, he pointed at his flattened white hair, “the icing on this gigantic shit cake is that my hair is a mess!” He clenched his fist. “Fuck! My life is a mess, every single thing about me right now is a mess. I am tired, I am sore, and I am pissed off, so kindly excuse me for not exactly being thankful!”

“That’s enough!” Genesis snapped. His bright blue eyes glittered with a silent warning. “I get it! I don’t like losing anymore than you do, but this isn’t a contest, so I’ll spare you the details of my own struggles.”

“Oh, your struggles.” Weiss rolled his eyes. As far as he was considered Genesis’s struggles couldn’t possibly have compared to his and above all, Nero’s.

Genesis sighed. “All right, so I shouldn’t have been so flippant with you, but I don’t appreciate being shown disrespect either. Do you understand me, little brother?”

Little brother. Weiss sucked in his breath. Not because of actually being considered “little brother”, but because those two words put Nero back in his mind. Still, he nodded, and stood beside Genesis. He looked down for his weapons and sighed when he found them gone. “Great. My weapons are gone.”

“So are mine,” Genesis half-smiled. “We’ll get them back soon enough”. Booming fireworks lit the sky with the very colors that represented Deepground’s elite. Weiss didn’t know whether to laugh or explode, but Genesis solved the problem with light chuckling. “A celebration, I see. I don’t blame them.”

“They’ll celebrate over anything,” Weiss replied, looking everywhere around him. For years, he usually didn’t see more than stone, lights, and metal. He remembered Nero talking about how things looked better from above. Weiss shook his head. “Just a little while ago, the World Wide Network came back up and they partied like it was nineteen-ninety-nine.”

“Heh. Really?”

“Yup, but then...” Weiss looked away, wanting desperately to forget what happened to him, at least for sometime.

Genesis raised an eyebrow. “Then?”

“Then...Deepground decided to crash and throw a party of their own.” He couldn’t say anything else, and he had to be honest, he didn’t want to, especially not to someone he barely knew, ‘brother’ or not.

“A long story, I’m sure.” Genesis took a step closer to Weiss. “But, don’t worry, you don’t have to say much more right now. Looks like you need some slumber, after all.”

“It won’t be the first thing I’ll be doing though,” Weiss answered, looking back at the festive destruction. Even from afar, he could see that many people danced around and did gods knew what else. “There has to be at least a few dumb shits down there drunk on their asses and thinking they’re as powerful as I am. I should be able to get what I need from some of them pretty easily.”

“No. I know you’re desperate, but don’t. I’ll handle it. I’ll find a place you can rest.” Genesis hugged himself when the clouds obscured part of the moon. “I’ve been slumbering enough, but I’m still a bit wet and that needs to be remedied.”

“Hmph. I need to get wet.” Weiss grumbled. “But when we find a place to stay, the first thing I’m going to do is take the biggest dump of my entire life. Then, I’m going to shower so much that I’ll flood the entire room. Finally, I’m going to crack open my skull and scrub every inch of my brain because if there is one thing I hate more than inefficiency, it’s being unclean.” He grit his teeth, feeling a whole lot of things, but he felt unclean first and foremost.

“Which, by the way, is ironic, considering that you have the mouth of a sewer.”

Weiss glared. “Gee, maybe I should wash my mouth out with soap too.”

“Don’t worry.” the older man replied, his hands held up in a gesture of de-escalation. He looked more than pretty when he smiled. “I’m not innocent in that regard.” His smiled faded just a little and he now looked curious. “Mind fucked? I guess that means possessed?”

“You can say that.” The former Emperor didn’t see the need to say much more. He had a feeling that he’d be with “G” for quite some time. Weiss only hoped that he didn’t have to carry out the tongue threat.

“Who?”

“Hojo.”

Genesis’s lips parted. He looked like a loved one just punched him in the gut. “Goddess...” His hair fell over his face. “My condolences.”

Weiss simply shrugged. “Thanks, but right now, I just want to get the hell away from here. Let them all keep thinking that I’m dead. I certainly feel that way right about now.” /If I could just get clean/.

“There has to be at least a few dumb monsters around thinking they’re as powerful as I am.” Genesis spread out his arms, and a black wing materialized out of his left shoulder.

Weiss’s blue eyes widened. “So, that’s how I ended up here.” He laughed quietly, but he could hear the bitterness in his own voice. He honestly didn’t mind being carried out of the Midgar depths, he just wished that Nero did it. Genesis would never replace Nero. Ever.

However, both ‘brothers’ proved to be right. Not only were there dumb monsters, there were also a few travelers who had gotten too drunk and curious for their own good. Even though he felt like shit, Weiss made sure that the monsters felt worse before they felt nothing at all. As for Genesis, he proved a little too merciful for Weiss’s taste as he simply knocked the people out from the air, but at least he took what was necessary.

“If I had my way, I’d rip the nuts off of half the populace” Weiss stated while he walked beside Genesis down the path that led away from the cliff. He wore a whiskey scented cloak over his bare chest “So, they don’t contaminate the world with their filth.”

“If,” Genesis repeated. “If.” He shook his head while counting the gil he took.

Weiss knew exactly what he meant, but decided not to pursue it too much. “I’d say ‘when’, but it’s too late to think that way now.”

“Is Kalm still around?”

Weiss frowned. “What? Uhm...” He had heard of Kalm while underground, but all he knew before the virus or rather-no, took his life, was that it would most certainly be attacked. “Honestly, I don’t know. Deepground spares no one, and my brother is ruthless when he’s pissed, so it wouldn’t surprise me if it were little more than a pile of rubble.”

Genesis pocketed the gil and held his arms out. “There’s only one way to find out.”

“You’re kidding, right?” Weiss bristled at the idea of being carried around like a helpless princess.

“Come on.” Genesis grinned, his blue eyes glowing a little too brightly for Weiss’s comfort. “You didn’t mind when I took you out of the cavern.”

“I didn’t have much of a choice.”

The grin widened. “You don’t have much of one now.”

--

Kalm wasn’t rubble, but it was also wasn’t exactly a solid looking town either. Neither SOLDIER had any doubt that there was death and lots of it. As they went into town, they say even more dancing people, music, and much joy in spite of all that happened. Weiss couldn’t help but shake his head.

“Like I said,” he muttered to Genesis, “they’d party over anything.”

“I guess it already is nineteen-ninety nine.” The other SOLDIER answered, his wing long gone with he himself obscured by a long, dark coat.

At least one inn managed to stay open, and Weiss took care to look as unnoticeable as possible. He felt thankful that Genesis had a similar idea. No one asked any questions, which suited Weiss just fine because he didn’t feel like telling any lies. As soon as they entered the room, Weiss ignored everything, except for the door that led to the bathroom.

“I’ll be heading out for a bit,” Genesis announced as he stood in front of the bed. “I’m going to ask around to see what’s been going on.”

Weiss grasped the door, wanting nothing more than to be alone. “Frankly, Scarlet, I don’t give a damn. Not now. Maybe later.”

“Nice, and I’m--”

A quick door slam shut up anything the older “brother” wanted to say. Sure, it was disrespectful, but Weiss simply didn’t care. He leaned against the door, taking deep breaths, and clenching his teeth when he saw Nero still sleeping.

“Nero...”

Weiss wanted to just slide down, sit on the floor and just do nothing more than wait for Nero to wake up, so he could speak to him, enter his own consciousness, and just hold his little brother. But, he couldn’t. He had work to do.